The internet is a hotbed of information that’s just waiting to be found. How do you find it? Through search engines that then scour the World Wide Web for specific keywords in your search and bring back results in less than a second.

Google gets over a billion search queries per day. And Google is just one of many search engines available to those browsing the ‘net. If you’re a company or blogger, you want your website to show up at the top of the search rankings.

That’s where SEO comes in. Search Engine Optimized content earns a higher place in the search results. Websites with poor content not only get low rankings, but they can also be penalized by some search engines, especially Google.

Types of Website Content

Website content should be useful and relevant to users. There are four main types of website content:

• Text – Most websites to use text to describe the purpose of the website and share content.
• Images – Popular sites embed images relevant to the text on the website.
• Video – Videos taken from Youtube or other sources engage the user more than text and images can.
• Audio – Audio from the above-mentioned video or in the background is useful for adding ambiance or context.

How Does Content Affect SEO?

Search engines use algorithms that decide the order in which the results are ranked. Most people click on the top search return or a result on the first page. Few people go further than the first page because they’re busy or have short attention spans.

If you want to generate traffic to your website, getting a high ranking on the search engines is one of the best ways to increase traffic. How often relevant keywords the algorithm finds on your web pages affects your ranking.

Content in the form of text should have keywords evenly distributed through the text. Images need to have the keywords included in the image description, as much as possible. Keywords help increase your website’s relevancy to the internet user.

Ways to Improve Content for SEO

Improving your content for SEO is easy once you know what gets the best search engine results. Here are a few tips on how to improve your SEO rankings:

• Utilize keywords in meta descriptions and SEO titles.
• Avoid the essay structure by allowing 3-4 sentences per paragraph.
• Use short sentences of 20 words or less.
• Break up the text by adding subheadings or another type of content every 300 words.
• Use your relevant keywords in the subheadings.
• Include backlinks to external and internal web pages.
• Add keywords to your alt image description.
• Avoid using popular keywords or your content will be buried in millions of other search results.

Boosting your SEO rankings with relevant content increases your visibility on the web. Most people aren’t going to search through pages to find useful information. If your content isn’t relevant, you won’t show up high enough on the results to get eyes on your website.

Of the billions of websites available, make yours the one people want to click on and then stay on.